Evaluation of the medthodology used by milgrim Flashcards
What was wrong with the sample?
Sample bias present. It’s androcentric with male only participants and also ethnocentric as all were american. therefore lacking genralisability towards general population. Volunteer sampling used can be argued that it’s people who are interested in studies showing a certain personality
How did Milgram defend the sample criticism?
He replicated the experiment with american females and found exactly same results. Smith and bond(1994) carried the study out all over the world and found similar results therefore supporting his findings
What was wrong with the ecological validity?
Ecological validity as it was in a lab and not a real; place therefore it can be argued that if ‘ lab hostile’ setting was there but a natural one the participants would have acted differently
What was wrong with the experimental validity?
Orne and Holland argued that it was low due to participants not believing that they were really giving shocks therefore acting to please the experimenter showing demand characteristics
How did Milgram defend experimental validity criticism?
Participants 75% thought that the shocks were real. 1 year later 50% still believed they were real.
What was ethically wrong with milgram study?
Baumrind accused Milgram of deceiving participants as he did not obtain full informed consent, caused psychological distress to participants and the right to withdraw was unclear
How did Milgram defend ethical issues?
He did not anticipate such high levels of distress would occur and he argued that the potential damage to the participants should be weighted against the importance of the findings
84% were glad they took part
80% though more experiments like this should be carried out
14% found that they felt like they learned something of personal importance
